Chapter 812: Vaporizing the Swarm

—

The humming of voices within the hive mind buzzed in the Bug Empress’ subconsciousness.

Through their network, information passed around. They were filtered based on priority, and sent through channels, with only the most pressing and highest priority being sent to her.

’Wretched humans. How did Gibson suddenly have so much time on his hands to take care of the Space Marines? ’The Bug Empress was upset.

She’s been receiving a stream of updates from time to time coming straight from the frontier. She was made aware of the changes that are happening in the Dimensional Gap of the Heavenly Star Chaos Realm.

And she’s obviously aware that, recently, they’ve been losing ground.

At first she dismissed this. Thinking that this was just some second wind. Some idiot must’ve rallied the foolish space marines, inspiring them enough to push back. It’s not the first time it happened, and they usually falter due to being outnumbered pretty quick.

But then, it stretched out for longer than she anticipated. Usually, their counterpush only lasts for months at least. Eventually, they’d tire out and be pushed back again.

However, it lasted for a year and is still counting. And unlike the last time, they’ve stabilized and reclaimed more ground. Her children were being pushed back decisively even though they’re throwing more bodies forward.

That’s when she got alarmed. So, she instructed her children to start collecting information to know how they’re doing this.

And through that, they discovered that something changed in the leadership of the Space Marines.

Unlike what they expected, the Space Marines didn’t act or push recklessly as if they were determined to throw their lives away for the sake of reclaiming territories.

Instead, they’re methodical in their approach, systematic, even. Well, they’ve always been like that since they’re Space Marines—the epitome of discipline and all that—but since some idiots are sitting at the helm of operations, their formation was messy. And the Horde has always capitalized on this. It’s how they managed to push them to the limits of the Dimensional Gap.

But even with that, they held ground. There had been many times when the Horde tried to make a decisive push to penetrate their defense lines. But even with how messy the leadership of the Space Marines was, the Horde always failed, much to the displeasure of the Bug Empress.

This signified that, despite the rotten pillars of the Space Marines, they are still a formidable force.

But now, something changed…

The Space Marines were acting like the elites that they really are all of a sudden. They systematically dismantled the camps of the Horde, sending them fleeing and decimating their ranks.

Attempts to fight back were met with constant disappointment since the Space Marines had become smarter all of a sudden. They know when to call their bluff and push forward, and also know when they’re truly and helplessly outnumbered, which helps them escape and look for other angles to approach.

All of a sudden, the Horde started losing ground. The push was so fast, decisive, and ruthless that it left them scrambling to respond even with the support of the hive mind.

More importantly, the Space Marines suddenly got their hands on new equipment. And that just increased their lethality to very dangerous levels.

Mind you, a single Space Marine—a fully equipped one—can face tens of thousands of bugs all on their own and hold position. They were the true elites of mankind.

And that’s with outdated technology—ones that had been figured out by the Horde and countered.

Yet now, out of nowhere, the Space Marines had shiny new toys—armors and weapons that didn’t just increase their individual power but instead amplified it?

Yeah, of course The Horde wasn’t prepared.

This, coupled with their smarter and more ruthless operations, made them so deadly that the Horde couldn’t keep up.

In their desperate attempt to recover ground, the Horde initiated a swarm—which is basically them sending out bodies forward, forming a sea and tide of bugs to swallow everything they come across.

But guess what? Even with that surefire way to push the space marines back, they still failed.

To their surprise, the Space Marines actually wanted them to do this. It’s their aim from the very beginning. And when they got the response they needed, they unleashed even more modern weaponry, which quelled the swarm so fast that it left the Horde reeling in shock.

Typically, the swarm should’ve crashed into the final defense line of humanity—quite literally knocking on their doors. But to their surprise, the swarm had evaporated before they even got there.

And humanity didn’t even sweat at all to do this. They just fired off their weapons and let their shells do the talking.

Only 5% of the swarm survived after the first unloading. That’s the result that really shook the entire race.

5%! What an absurd thing to happen!

It’s not like the Horde wasn’t trying. They were! They launched a swarm, for crying out loud; that’s literally their jailbreak card when shit hits the fan.

Yet it didn’t matter in the end. It took just one round of bombing using their new weaponry, and the swarm was quelled.

The remaining 5%? They all died too, shortly after, but not until reporting the unbelievable outcome of their push.

And humans? There was no way they wouldn’t seize this chance.

They didn’t even celebrate or pause to rest. Like machines with a limitless energy source, they pushed forward and reclaimed their territory, one that should’ve been theirs in the first place but got stolen and corrupted by the Horde.

In a matter of weeks, they cleansed these territories and established new defense lines, reinforcing the network of the Space Marines.

What’s left of the Horde did their best to stop them from doing this, but they were outgunned. Humans couldn’t quite truly wipe them out completely; they, the bugs, too, were unable to stop humans from doing what they want.

And humans? They moved quickly. It’s like they never thought about losing or failing, that everything went according to the plan.

They reclaimed their territory; they built new bases and camps, drew defensive lines…they laid out traps, pushed their huge weapons forward, and properly defended their extended territory better than anybody would expect.

Even when the reinforcements of the Horde arrived, they were decimated all the same.

It was a catastrophic failure for the Horde. A crisp slap to their face.

The Bug Empress was, of course, upset about this. But in the end, she couldn’t blame her children too much.

Seeing those new weapons, she immediately knew that it was Gibson who did all of this. He’s the only person who’s tech-savvy enough to come up with new toys like these.

There was no doubt about this, especially since at least half of the new weapons that have been revealed used to be prototypes that Gibson personally used against her in their previous fights.

She had no doubt that it’s Gibson who now sits at the helm of the Space Marines. And with him around, the Space Marines would truly become what they were supposed to be all along—elite warriors of mankind, the best of them all.

But that also puzzled her…

Wasn’t Gibson supposed to be focusing on his breakthrough attempt? How come he’s got so much time to spend that he could visit the Space Marines to do some cleanup?

’He must’ve failed, then,’ the Bug Empress realized. ’I’m guessing that they now know how difficult it is to truly reach the peak of life evolution.’

’The waist shackle must’ve driven them crazy too.’

’If I’m right, then this is Gibson’s way of compensating for his failure.’

’He’d station himself in the front lines to stop me from interfering while his companions do their best to go ahead of him.’

’Urek, that prankster…I have no doubt that he failed too. His potential barely took him to where he is right now, and that’s his absolute limit. Nothing short of divine intervention can change that. And even then, it may not be enough.’

’Berk…maybe, but his chances are really low. I don’t know if he already made an attempt or not, but if he did, then the chances of him failing were high.’

’That leaves Patricia and Nicholas.’

The Bug Empress massaged her temples when she thought of them.

’One is the most foul-mouthed and loved by the heavens, while the other used to be a supernova who burnt out.’

’In terms of pure talent and potential, Patricia couldn’t hold a candle to Nick. But in terms of mentality and stability, Patricia wins all the time.’

’Both are incredibly talented and had the highest chance of actually reaching the peak. Both are extremely intelligent and cunning too.’

’I’ve fought them enough times to know that they can truly end me if even one of them succeeds.’

’The problem is…did they? Did any of them successfully break through? ’

’As much as I want to stop them, or at least see if they actually did, I can’t.’

’Not when Gibson’s stationed right there.’

’What do I do? ’

The Bug Empress sure was stressed about the current situation.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep